DENVER—Since nobody can bring the largest collection of U.S. beer ever served to their wedding, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., the oldest craft brewery in Texas, is bringing the wedding to the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). Saint Arnold plans to construct a chapel at its booth at this year’s GABF and has put out the call for couples who would like to make a lifetime commitment while experiencing the premier U.S. beer festival.
A Saint Arnold employee who has officiated weddings in the past will preside over the nuptials dressed as Saint Arnold of Metz, the patron saint of brewers.

“One of my favorite toasts is, ‘May your heart always be full and your glass never empty,’ and I expect to hear that toast a lot at the GABF weddings,” said Saint Arnold Director of Marketing and Events, Lennie Ambrose. “Saint Arnold is closely associated with the legend of the miraculous mug that never ran dry, so I expect he will be right at home at GABF.”

Saint Arnold is scheduling weddings between 5:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Thursday October 10th through Saturday October 12th in booth number 134. Saint Arnold will also perform civil ceremonies and vow renewals.

“This will be a lot of fun and we expect there will be no shortage of people taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share the love with thousands of fellow craft beer enthusiasts,” said Ambrose. “While it is a relatively simple process to get married in Colorado, a Colorado marriage license is required, so this will require a little planning for those wishing to wed. Fortunately, the Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder, which provides marriage licenses, is conveniently located within four blocks of the chapel we’re planning to build at GABF.”

According to experts with TheKnot.com, Wedding.com and others, craft beer has been a leading trend in weddings this year. More couples are carefully choosing the beer offered at their wedding reception to pair with foods served, adding beer tasting stations, printing custom labels or brewing their own beer for the special day. In fact, the recipe for Saint Arnold Icon Green – an Amarillo hefeweizen – was inspired by a brewer’s wedding gift for his sister and brother-in-law to be.

For more information about getting married by Saint Arnold at GABF, visit http://www.saintarnold.com/gabfwedding/.

HOUSTON—Saint Arnold Brewing Co. (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in Texas, today announced the upcoming release of Saint Arnold Icon Gold, the latest in the brewery’s line of rotating beers that complement the brewery’s year-round and seasonal offerings. It will begin showing up in 4-packs of 12 ounce bottles and on tap in pubs and restaurants throughout Texas and Louisiana as supplies of Icon Green, a well-received Amarillo hefeweizen, are exhausted.

Saint Arnold Icon Gold is a Bière de Saison that delivers a complex spicy nose with notes of brown sugar and plums. Developed by brewer Aaron Inkrott, Saint Arnold Icon Gold was inspired by traditional French and Belgian farmhouse style ales, including Bière de Noel, which translates to mean Christmas Beer. Saint Arnold Icon Gold’s taste starts with big spicy malt and alcohol, moving to fruity in the middle and then an earthy, spicy finish.

“The malts used were focused on creating a complex malt backbone, with subtle floral characteristics from the Hersbrucker hops,” said Inkrott. “The yeast is an aromatic Belgian Saison strain that produces complex esters balanced with earthy and spicy notes.”

Saint Arnold Icon Gold has original gravity of 1.075, final gravity of 1.0105 and alcohol by volume of nine percent. It is best served at 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

“This is a great example of the creativity of our brewers,” said Saint Arnold Founder/Brewer Brock Wagner. “Using a saison yeast with a heartier malt bill creates a satisfying result and a complex beer that doesn’t fit a specific style.”

A new Saint Arnold Icon beer is released every three months or so, depending on how quickly supplies are exhausted. As the brewery continues to experiment, some Icon styles are expected to be replaced from one year to the next while other styles may return.

This beer is referred to as Saint Arnold Icon Gold because of its striking metallic gold and black label.

Upcoming in the Saint Arnold Icon line is a Bohemian Pils, scheduled for release around December as Saint Arnold Icon Red, which will replace 2012′s Belgian-Style Pale Ale.

Houston, TX

Endeavour is a double IPA. This beer is best enjoyed at 45 degrees or even a little warmer.

ABV: 8.9

ABW: 7.1

COLOR: N/A

BITTERNESS: 76

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1078

AVAILABLE: LA, TX

The primary goal of the series was to demonstrate to beer lovers―who may not be as familiar with yeast as, say, homebrewers would be―how large an effect yeast has on the flavor of beer. People talk about malt and hops a lot, but yeast is kind of forgotten.

That’s what started my whole thought process. We had some extra wort from a batch of Lawnmower several years ago. We’d filled up one of our yeast propagation units, and we had some hefeweizen yeast, so we just tossed it in with the Lawnmower wort for no other reason than we didn’t want to put the wort down the drain. We let it ferment out and tasted it, and went “Wow, that’s really good.” We jokingly called it Weedwacker at the brewery.

Skip forward a few years. I think it was after a conversation about hefeweizen with somebody who didn’t understand that it was the yeast, not the wheat, that was making all that clove and banana flavor. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to do a series that takes our regular beers and ferments them with different yeast? That way, you could have a side-by-side tasting. The reaction has been great. In fact, Weedwacker will probably come back this year as a permanent beer.

Which has been the most dramatic or the most satisfying example?

Weedwacker has been the most popular one. But my personal favorite so far [is Farmer Brown’s Ale]. We took our brown ale, and pitched it with a saison yeast. It had that nice spicy earthiness and dryness that the saison yeast gives to a beer. Something that I found interesting is that our brown ale has a little bit of a chocolaty note to it, but when it fermented with the saison yeast, that was completely absent.

Most people would have attributed the chocolate note to the malt.

Right. And certainly the malt did contribute the chocolate, but it was really the malt with our house yeast strain that gave that round, chocolaty flavor. When we switched the yeast, suddenly that malt note disappeared. I actually found it to be a delicious beer.

Saison is not a style I always turn to, because I find the yeast dryness lacks a bit of balance. The rich brown ale wort contributed some maltiness that works really well with that yeast.

Are these beers draft only, or can people get paired bottles to taste at home?

They’re only on draft. It’s possible that we’ll re-visit some of them, but it may be the others are just a one-time deal.

It’s a cool experiment. You’ve given people a very pleasurable way to learn about these differences.

I found at some places people would set  it up so they could do side-by-side, but honestly, most of the time people were just trying a single pint at a time―which was why it was important that the beers were quite tasty unto themselves. I’ve been quite pleased with the results, just because of the conversations this initiated.

I read that, in taking up brewing, you’re returning to a family tradition.

I would say that we have a long family tradition of alcohol! I don’t know of any actual brewers before myself, but if you go back four greats, my great-great-great-great grandfather was an alcohol merchant in the Alsace region of France/Germany (whoever happened to own it at that particular time). Then my great-great-great grandfather left Alsace and in 1862, I believe, he opened a bar in San Francisco. Originally, it was called Wagner’s Beer Hall. Now it’s called The Saloon. Today, it’s the oldest existing bar in San Francisco.

Is it a good beer bar?

I wouldn’t call it a beer bar. I’d call it more of a dive. If you go there during the day, you’ll have more teeth in your mouth than the entire rest of the bar. But in the evening, it’s a pretty hopping place, with great bands.

We thought it had burned in the fire after the big earthquake. But one of my aunts did some research, and found old family pictures. The street names had changed―it was DuPont Street; now it’s Grant Street. She went to that corner, checked the pictures and went “I’ll be damned. It’s the same building.”

It turns out that there had been a brothel upstairs from the bar. When the fire broke out, all the fireman took off to save the brothel, and thus the bar was saved. There’s even a door to the brothel in the bar. I’ve tried to connect our family to the brothel, but it seems that happened after the bar passed out of family hands. I like the story just the same.